


Reception

by Howto_WildFires



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, Crying, F/F, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Please Kill Me, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-07 14:47:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17367905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Howto_WildFires/pseuds/Howto_WildFires
Summary: AU in which cell phones are a thing, and Adora is a sad drunk.Literally everything else is the same.Post S-1Why do I still think I can writeYou think I would've learned my lesson by nowSMHMulti-chapter fic bcus you guys are crayAlso I still don't know how to tag wtffff





	1. Bad Signal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Life is naught but a series of trials and tribulations. There is joy, but it does not outweigh the pain.

Catra awoke with a growl, to the sound of her cell phone ringing loudly.

She answered it with almost a snarl, barely bothering to open an eye as she did so.

There was only one person who called this device, and moreover, there was only _one_  person stupid enough to harass her at this hour.

“Scorpia, I fucking swear if-”

A breathy and painfully familiar voice on the other end interrupted her.

“ _Hey, Catra._ ”

Catra felt her body stiffen. A moment of silence, before responding.

“ _How_  did you get this number,” Her voice went from angry, to strict business... Maybe a hint of annoyance buried somewhere in there. Why the hell was _she_  calling?

“You realize this is a recorded line, right? I'm obligated to report everything you say here to Lord Hordak himself,” Catra said, perhaps a tad too forcefully.

A choked sob found the other side. “Catra, I...” Sniffles. Had Adora been crying?

“I just... I wanted to hear your voice.”

Tears were evident in the Warrior Princess's voice.

Catra cringed at the statement. “Adora, what the hell,” she asked, not bothering to hide the annoyance in her tone this time.

Adora breathed, and spent a second fighting back her tears, before speaking once more. “I-I miss you, Catra. I miss you so much. And I... I wish you were... Here... With me,” Adora finished, her words periodically interrupted sobs and sniffles.

Catra gave a look somewhere between confusion and frustration. “What... The fuck is wrong with you, Adora? Did you hit your head during the Battle of Bright Moon? I clawed up your back. I dropped you down a pit and left you for dead,” Catra growled, her hand going to her face, holding the bridge of her nose in frustration as she finished her rant, “I really don't know what I can do to make my feelings towards you clearer.”

More tears.

“I know, I know, Catra. But I-I love you, and I miss you, and I'm so sorry. I'm sorry you felt like my shadow, and I... I just... I thought we were happy together, and I didn't...” Her words became harder to understand, as they gave way to incomprehensible (and probably messy) sobs.

Catra shook her head, rage bubbling to the top of her mind. “No, no. Shut up. You stop that. You don't get turn you back on me, and leave me, defect to the enemy, and then get all teary on me when I treat you like one. That isn't fair. You did this. You brought this on yourself, Adora.”

More choked sobs on the other end, before Adora responded hoarsely. “W-we were... Supposed to be heroes, Catra. H... Heroes fighting to liberate people. That's what... That's what they raised me to do. I'm sorry, I'm so fucking sorry I'm like this. I just, I thought we could save the world together. I always did.”

“Bullshit,” Catra wasn't having any of it. “You saw what they did to us. You were there. We were _children_!” Anger and hurt bled its way into Catra's voice as she finished.

“Dammit, I'm sorry Catra! I'm sorry I'm so fucking dumb. I'm sorry I was naive, I just, I thought heroes needed to be strong. It's just...” Adora sobbed, but then fought her tears back, so she could finish, “it's just like you said... We were children... Catra, I love you.”

Catra grinded her teeth together. “Stop saying that,” she seethed, “if you loved me, you never would have left.”

“But, I couldn't just, so many people needed help, and I thought that was our... What we were supposed...” Her words trailed off into incoherent sobs, followed by, “I miss you so much, Catra.”

Catra glared at the wall. Sleep and tired had left her eyes, and she was silent with anger and consideration as Adora's sobs died off. Her left palm was bleeding. At some point, she made the mistake of making a fist while her claws were extended.

“Catra... What if, is it too late for me to come back? Would you, would you still accept me? I'll, I'll do whatever... Even if it means... Oppressing...” She could hear the tears building up again, “Oppressing the people I swore... I swore to liber-,” more incoherent sobs. “I miss you so much.”

Catra sighed, and waited for the tears to die down once more. “Yeah, Adora. It's too late. Look, you chose your side. If you gave up, the only place you'd see our victory from is probably a cell, to be honest,” Catra said, this time her voice free of anger but full of (emotional?) exhaustion, “Adora, what the hell did this to you? Did you drink something?”

Silence on the other end. “You know, maybe I was supposed to be a Horde Soldier this... Entire time,” Adora sniffled, “When uhh... When we went to save Glimmer, I... I screwed up, and someone... They didn't make it. Bow said... He saw her consumed... By the fire...” More sobs.

_Entrapta?_

Huh. That explains why they hadn't returned from their friend. Still. It was so like Adora to give up on someone so easily. A hint of suspicion coated Catra's voice. “Why are you telling me this? Some sort of attempt at a guilt trip?” _This entire call was a guilt trip._

“N-no, I just... I can't even... I don't grieve her because, I can't... Everytime I think about her, my selfish fucking mind goes back to you, giving me my sword... And those, those precious moments when I thought you cared about-” the end of Adora's statement was cut off by more loud sobbing.

Catra cringed at the confession. “Seriously, Adora. What the hell did they do to you?”

It was... A hell of a confession. Especially since a huge part of the (initial) reason she hated Adora was that she chose other people over her promise to Catra. It kinda made sense though. Catra was right. Entrapta was an outcast as well. Adora and her friends didn't _really_  care about the princess. If that had been Sparkle or Arrow, Adora wouldn't even be calling Catra. She probably wouldn't ever even speak to Catra again, outside of her She-Ra form.

She waited for the sobs on the other end to die down. “Adora, what is with you tonight? Did you ingest poison or something?”

Adora sniffled, before replying through tears, “I think they called it wine...”

This... Made a little more sense... Adora was drunk. This was a drunk call.

She sighed.

“Catra I...” Adora hoarsely started again, “Do you think that... If the rebellion loses... That... We could be together? I miss you...”

Catra couldn't help but give a soft chuckle. “No, Adora. I'm not your safety net.”

The hateful part of her had always wanted to see Adora broken. Her only regret right now, was that she couldn't _actually_ see Adora. She just had to listen to it. It would also help if Adora stopped trying to flatter her. It was hard to enjoy her nemesis's misery when she kept trying to confess her love to Catra. Also, Adora could've picked a better time; Catra was probably going to be exhausted in the morning.

Okay, so there were at least a handful of regrets Catra had about this whole thing.

“I just... I want you... How do I... What if, you join the rebellion,” Catra felt her teeth grinding, “and I'll just, I'll listen to you. I'll be your sidekick. You can tell me whatever you want me to do, and I'll do it. You're so much stronger, and smarter than me Catra.”

Catra raised an eyebrow at the proposal, before letting out a soft, but humorless laugh. “Flattery will get you nowhere, Adora. Anyway, I think we both know you don't mean any of that.”

Adora was quick to reply. “I do, I really do. I need a magic sword just to keep up with you, and I still can't sleep on my back,” Catra couldn't help but grin at this confession, but her smile died down as Adora continued, “and if I... If I was smarter... I would've noticed what you did... And, we would've noticed that the Horde was evil at the same time... And then we would've run away from them. I would've convinced you to leave earlier...”

Catra gave a soft growl in reply. “Awful lot of ifs there, Princess.”

Adora fought back another sob.

“I just... I miss you... And I want you beside me... So much and I... I know there's probably not an answer... But, if there's a way to get you back, beside me... Please tell me... It's like I've been fighting with a hole in my chest. And every time I see you, it gets bigger. And I just, I need you, Catra.”

Catra frowned. This time, Adora's words... They almost sounded sincere. It took so long for Catra to cut her out though... She wasn't about to backtrack all that due to some tears. She gave another dry, humorless chuckle.

“Well, it's good to know that Princess Sparkles isn't as good at playing sidekick as I-”

“Catra, I love you. It's not that I miss you watching my back. It's not that I miss you defending me. It's that I miss your laugh. I miss your purrs, and smiles. I miss, I miss the way your body feels against mine. I felt... so safe with you. Even after everything, I still-”

Catra cut her off, her voice strained. “Adora, stop. Just stop. Please.” The rage in her tone was overplayed, to hide the tears that threatened behind it.

Adora was quiet for a second. “Just tell me... How... How I can... Be with you?” Shallow, teary breaths interrupted her every few words. It sounded like every word hurt worse to say than the last.

Catra glared at the wall.

It hurt.

It hurt to think that before she had left, she would've wholeheartedly accepted this confession. Perhaps, at some point, it had been something she wanted to hear.

But not now.

The question was why. Why was Adora telling her this right now? Why did it sound like Adora would die if she Catra refused her affections (as she should?)

The answer was obvious.

Alcohol.

Catra let out a sigh, before speaking again.

“I'll tell you what you can do, Adora. You can sober up, and call me tomorrow.”

Adora sniffled again. There was another couple of seconds before she responded. “O... kay...”

She sounded so small. From that alone, it was hard to believe that this was the Legendary She-Ra, on the phone. In fact, it was hard to believe that for a lot of this conversation.

There was another long moment of silence.

“I gotta get some sleep, Adora. I have-”

“Please just... Stay on the line? I want... I want to hear you...” Exhaustion had flooded into Adora's voice. “Even if it's just you breathing...”

Catra frowned. Her nemesis was suffering, and pathetic. But thinking that way didn't help. She already got all the joy and pleasure she could from Adora's brokenness tonight. All that was left was tired, and something else she stubbornly refused to put a name on.

_I told you... I'm not your safety net, Adora._

“Yeah... I can leave the phone on for a bit, Adora. Not for long though so... You better get to sleep,” she said, against her better judgement. Adora let out a soft whine. “Goodnight, Adora.”

Adora hummed sleepily. “Night, Catra,” came the slightly distorted reply. Adora had probably set the phone on the pillow, and mumbled into it.

Catra laid down.

It pissed her off. Adora sure had _s_ _ome_  sense of timing.

Still. This was fine.

In the morning, Adora wouldn't call, and the two of them to continue their war, and never speak of this again. Simple as that.

The way Catra saw it, she could enjoy Adora's suffering and tears. It was just too much of a good thing. The way your teeth hurt if you eat too much sweets without eating.

Next day, she'd be refreshed, and back to wanting to tear Adora apart. Back to hating her as she should. Back to seeing her as the enemy.

Back to not listening to her fall asleep on the phone.

Finally, Adora started to snore softly. It was a sound she was extremely familiar, and once upon a time, she'd let it lull her to sleep. But not anymore.

Catra was tired. She was tired and her heart hurt.

She waited a few more minutes, before hanging up.

Silence.

It had been awhile since her room sounded this quiet.

She got up, and got dressed quickly, before grabbing her phone, and heading for the labs.

A part of her thought about exchanging her device for a new one. A new number. That way, this couldn't happen again... But for some reason, she didn't do that.

She had Entrapta delete the logs for her call, both from her phone, and the computers that had recorded it.

Entrapta did so without questions. Well, she asked questions, but just annoying technical ones. None of the ones Catra didn't want to answer, which Catra was (silently) infinitely thankful for.

When she wasn't able to sleep, Catra spent the rest of that night watching the sky outside, in the cold.

For some reason, it didn't seem to help nearly as much as it usually did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second part??? Who fucking knows lmao.  
> All jokes aside, if there's enough people infatuated with my TERRIBLE SELF-INDULGENT WRITING then yes, I'll write a part 2.  
> As it is though, I was just planning for this to be a One-Shot.
> 
> Edit: The support for this is more than I could've dreamed. Thank you all so much lmao  
> I can't stop smiling  
> I've already started work on the second part!!!!


	2. Call Me When You're Sober

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Adora is hungover and suffering.  
> Oh, and another call is made, ofc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I bet you didn't think my writing could get any worse, huh?  
> WELL I'M HERE TO PROVE YOU WRONG
> 
> All jokes aside  
> The support I've gotten off this fic  
> is RIDICULOUS  
> YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING AND I LOVE YOU ALL  
> You have turned what's was going to be an angsty oneshot into a multi-chapter trashheap  
> you will regret  
> I will regret  
> But let's do this  
> (And thank you all so much)

Pain. If asked about the time she hurt most in her life, Adora would probably think about the time fell. Not the physical pain. But the emotional pain. The weight in her heart as she saw Catra's cold, almost indifferent stare look down upon her. As she begged Catra not to drop her... As Catra told her that Adora had done nothing but hold her back. 

It tore her open.

Catra's eyes and words tore open Adora heart, and left her soul dripping down into the chasm below.

_ People need me. I'm a hero. _

She tried hard to focus on her friends in that moment, as tears stung her eyes. It was the only thing that kept her from dropping down before Light Hope appeared.

Catra's nails down her back paled in comparison to that drop. Well, the pain from that was admittedly intense as all hells, but endorphins took the brunt of it. Plus, Adora would be lying if she said that a part of her wasn't still on a high from Catra admitting that she was happy to see Adora alive. Even if she did claim that it was just so she could kill her herself.

_ Maybe she actually... Cares? _

A part of her couldn't help thinking that way, despite everything the her the feline had done.

So, when Catra ran her claws down She-Ra's back, it was easier than it should've been to shrug off that pain.

But that pain from the fall? That stuck for awhile.

If Adora was asked to describe the heartache she felt in that moment, in the terms of physical pain? She couldn't.

At least, she couldn't... Before today.

Adora's entire body ached, as she groaned into awakeness.

The sunlight burned through her window, and she brought her arm up, in a futile attempt to shield her eyes.

The light made her headache worse. Moving made her headache worse. Everything made her headache worse.

“Sh-shoot...” she choked out. She was dehydrated. She gave a dry cough, as she felt her hand brush against an object usually foreign to her bed.

Her phone.

She must've forgot to charge it.

Adora managed to keep her cursing internal this time, as she fought her way through her aching limbs to the fountain.

The water brought life to Adora as she drank, and lessened the aches slightly.  She glanced back to her bed.

For some reason... Her phone was... On her pillow.

_Fuck._

All at once, the memories of last night, what she had done last night, came pouring in.

She recoiled from them, holding her head in shame as heat rushed to her face in embarrassment. 

“ _Oh nooooooo.._.” Adora groaned.

She tried to shake it off. Maybe it was just a dream.

Except... Her pillow was still... Slightly damp... Probably from her tears. And her phone... Was on Catra's contact.

_ Fuck. _

She collapsed on her back, and held the phone above her face.

23%. She groaned again in shame. At this point, her mind was looking for excuses. Any excuse it could.

She probably didn't say _everything_  she thought she remembered... Right?

Then again...

_"Adora, what the hell?”_

Another groan at the memory. Catra must've said that for the call in general... Yup... That's it.

Adora set her phone to charge, and attempted to fall back asleep.

She woke up an hour later to Glimmer's sing-songy voice.

“Wake up, sleepyhead!! It's time for breakfast!”

Adora groaned. The (ever present) hangover even made her back scars hurt more. Everything was pain.

But most of the pain came from the fact that she had almost definitely drunkely confessed her love to Catra last night. And been thoroughly rejected (as is to be expected.)

“Well, actually it's closer to lunch, but Bow and I saved you some. I mean, I saved you and Bow some,” Glimmer laughed. She was way too chipper in morning. “Turns out, he's just as much of a lightweight as you are! Seahawk was _disappointed._ ”

Adora almost growled at that name. Seahawk. It was his basically his fault she was in this mess.

Adora sat up, ignoring the ache in her entire body, moving to retrieve and eat the breakfast Glimmer had for her.

“And how did _you_  recover so fast?” Adora said, with a hint of accusation, before mumbling a thanks between bites.

Glimmer gave her an amused smile. “I didn't drink, silly. And you're welcome.”

Glimmer gave a sigh before continuing, her tone shifting to a slightly darker one. “Anyway, enjoy your day off today. It'll be your last for awhile. Tomorrow, we start on repairs. A few of the other princesses and I are gonna get a head start today, see what we can get done.” She gave a nod to Adora's drink. “And you're going to want to drink that coffee. It helps.”

Adora didn't really feel like there was anything that could help her at this point... But, she drank it anyway.

“Say umm...” Adora started, weirdly, “okay so... I'm probably gonna want to get some more rest,” she lied, “soooo... I'll find you later? Thanks for the breakfast!”

Glimmer gave her a weird look. It was so painfully obvious whenever Adora tried to lie, but she shrugged it off. She probably didn't want to know whatever the Princess of Power wanted her privacy for. “Yeah. I'll probably be busy, but if not, then definitely. I'll go check on Bow, and then see if Frosta's ready to get to work.” 

Glimmer got up, and moved to collect Adora's dishes. “She's actually nice once you get past her... _icy exterior._ ” 

Glimmer looked to Adora for a reaction to her pun. Adora had already laid back, and only offered an exasperated groan in reply.

“Geez, that wine really kicked the crap out of you, didn't it? Get some rest, Adora.”

Adora gave a nod and waited for the sound of her friend teleporting before forcing herself to sit up. Her eyes went to her phone, and within seconds, her phone was in her hand, her finger hovering over the call button.

This was fine, right?

She made sure Glimmer wouldn't pop back in... And everybody else was probably either asleep from last night, or still fighting off a hangover.

She wouldn't be interrupted.

She hesitated.

_Wait... Why am I calling her?_

Well... She... She had to... Apologize. And... Check what exactly she had said to Catra. See... How much of it her rival had understood.

It still felt like an excuse.

Even beyond all that, something pulled her towards that dial button.

It was like she was forgetting something... Something terribly important... That meant she _had_  to call.

Before she could mentally talk herself out of it, the phone was ringing.

She had to apologize, that's all this is.

Ringing.

_This was dumb. Is Catra even going to answer?_

And ringing.

_She's ignoring me, because of course she is. I should just hang up and scrape whatever dignity I have left up off the-_

“ _Hey, Adora._ ” Came the smooth voice from the other side; Adora could almost _hear_ the smirk in her voice.

Adora audibly swallowed, before regaining her composure. “Catra,” she replied, her voice as solid and business-like as she could make it.

Catra chuckled in reply. “Well, someone sounds a little embarrassed. Something on your mind, princess?”

Catra's teasing had the ~~best~~  worst effect on her, ans she could already feel her cheeks heat up.

“N-no! I'm not, I mean, yes! B-but, but not like-!”

Adora stopped her useless stammering in favor of breathing. She took a long, deep breath and tried to calm herself. This was just Catra. She always had that teasing tone. It didn't mean anything.

“I wanted to apologize, Catra. I... Was compromised last night,” Catra snorted at her word choice, “and I may have... Harassed you somewhat... And I'm sorry about that. It was... Not my intention.”

Catra soaked up Adora's words like a sponge.

After a few seconds, the cat found her voice, in a tone that was slightly more conversational than Adora was expecting.

“Makes sense. So you didn't mean anything you said last night? That's cool.”

“Wait-what!? Who said that?” Adora's words came out a little more ~~desperate~~  forceful than she had intended.

“Don't worry about it,” came Catra's casual reply, “sometimes alcohol makes us say things we don't mean.”

“No, no, no. I mean what-” Adora shook her head, “what are you even talking about? Like, what are you saying I didn't mean? What all...” Adora swallowed, “... What all did I say?”

She remembered most of it... But a stubborn part of her held on to the idea that some of it, might have been a drunken mirage. Perhaps she didn't say all those things... And, if she had kept a least of word of that to herself... If she wasn't careful, she might end up accidentally spilling it to Catra here anyway.

There was another silence, as though Catra was weighing her options.

“Well...” The feline started. Her thoughtful tone vanished quicker than it came. “Actually, just forget it, Adora. It's not important. Like you said, you were-”

_Fuck it._

“Catra, it's true.”

Another silence. But Adora refused to let this one linger. “Every word of it. Every bit of what I said, I meant it. I love-”

Memories burned through her mind. _S_ _top saying that._

She ignored them.

“I love you, Catra.”

Her face was on fire. She couldn't believe she had done this. Gods, putting Catra's number onto her phone was such a _mistake._

Silence.

And then, it broke. “... Huh.”

Catra didn’t trust herself to speak again until she could salvage her teasing tone from before.

“How _did_  you get my number, Adora.”

Seahawk.

That troublesome Sea Captain responsible for bringing some of the wine to Brightmoon, and wholly responsible for convincing Bow and her to drink with him and the rest of the partygoers.

This entire situation was his fault.

_It had been back in their mission to save Glimmer._

_ Somehow, Seahawk had gotten his hands the mobile device of an enemy, and offered to Adora. _

_ “Perhaps we could get intel on this enemy through this device? Let me know if you need someone to verbally hoodwink someone out of revealing some  _ dastardly _  horde plans!” _

_ Mermista gave an approving nod. “Wow Seahawk, that's... Oddly competent of you.” _

_ Adora shook her head and huffed at both of them. “You guys! This isn't some kind of data crystal, this is someone's personal cell phone! We're the good guys, remember?! We don't steal things from people!” _

_ She gave a point at the corridor ahead. _

_ “Besides, Glimmer and Bow need our help now, so can we  _ please _ focus on the task at hand!?” _

_ Seahawk sheepishly agreed while Mermista seemed indifferent either way. _

_ It was later that she realized she had pocketed the mobile, instead of disposing of it. _

_ She and Glimmer were almost out, ducking in a darkened corridor to hide, as a few patrols rushed past. _

_ Her phone went off, and Glimmer shot her a look somewhere between pissed off, and betrayed. _

_ Lightning fast, she brought her hands up to silence it... Only to realize it wasn't her phone. And that Catra was calling her. _

_ The image burned itself into her mind... Almost against her own will. _

_ She left the phone on the ground in that corridor... But for some reason, that series of numbers that had been beneath Catra's name wouldn't stop repeating in Adora's head. _

_ It got worse when Catra gave her the sword. _

_ Finally, she just decided it would free up her mind if she wrote them down. Recorded them in her phone. _

_ After all... It's not like she was  _ actually _ gonna use the number... Right? _

 

“That's not really important, Catra. Besides, you're deflecting!” Adora said, snapping out of her momentary stupor.

Catra audibly laughed at the irony of that statement.

“Okay, okay. I'll play your game Princess. You really wanna know what _I_ think about your confession?”

There was a slight venom in Catra's words that made Adora cringe. But that's okay, she was braced now. “... Yes.”

“I think you're right. I think you do love me,” Adora was quiet. She could hear that Catra wasn't done. “I think you love me like a man loves his pet.” 

There it is. Adora slowly brought her hand to her forehead in frustration as Catra's rant continued.

“You love me being at your heels, you love having someone constantly following behind you, picking up your scraps and telling you how wonderful you are. You loved telling me what to do, and you _loved_  me being your sidekick!”

Anger had built up full force into Catra's voice by the end of her statement, and Adora couldn't help but feel some of that rage seep into her. “That's really strange, Catra. Because most people I know with pets _don’t_ have wet dreams about them!.”

Catra scoffed, failing only slightly to hide the amusement in her voice when she spoke, “well, you _are_  pretty messed up, Adora.”

Adora scoffed. “Don't I know it! I have to be to be so irrevocably in love with someone so stubborn!”

“Don't go try-”

“No, Catra. You had your turn. Now it's mine.”

She heard the feline hiss on the other end, but refused to let that stop her.

“I'm so frickin tired of you telling me how I feel! Trying to tell me what my motivations were, and how I saw you! And I'm sorry! How many times do I have to say that? I'm sorry for not being enough, and I'm so fucking _sorry_ for taking you for granted.” She was yelling now. Tears and shame were bleeding into her voice as well, but she didn't falter. She had to finish this.

“I love you so much. I loved you _so_ much. I never wanted to leave you. I always wanted to be by your side, Catra. We were supposed to take the world together. And I'm sorry, I'm sorry for just...” Her voice cracked as she continued. “For just assuming you felt the same. Leaving the Horde... It never meant leaving you... Not until you tazed me twice in the back... And by then... It was too late. The damage was done.”

Catra growled on the other end. “Adora...”

A pause.

She could hear Catra breathing deeply, trying to calm herself. She took the time to try the same. Fighting back the tears that flowed from her eyes, wiping what she could on her sleeve.

“I miss-”

Catra cut her off. “I'm not going to talk with you about this if you're just going to cry.” Back in her business tone.

Adora nodded weakly. “Okay just... Just give me a second.”

After a few minutes of sniffles and silence, Adora spoke once more.

“I'm good.” She said, only a hint of a waver in her voice.

“Uh-huh...” Catra said skeptically, “Where were we? Oh yes. You were blaming me for my reaction to you deserting us and everything we had ever known.”

Adora cringed at her indifferent, matter-of-fact tone.

“Catra that's not what-”

“ _You_ walked away, Adora. I waited and waited for you to come back. I begged. Don't forget that.”

Adora sighed.

There was another silence.

“You ever think its weird Catra... How I'm the only one at fault?”

“No.” Catra answered honestly.

“Okay so. I took you for granted. And I assumed you'd come with me. That's my bad. I didn't notice that the horde was evil. I'm dumb. I'm naive. Okay. And finally, I didn't realize you felt like you were my shadow. There's me being dumb again.”

“At least it's consistent.”

“But... You never told me how you felt... Not once... You knew the horde was evil, and you didn't... Say... A thing... If you had just, reached out a little more... Been the tiniest bit more open... I think it would've had the same effect as if I had been more observant.” Adora tried.

Catra scoffed. “Great. So now you're saying I should be blamed for your naivete?”

“No, Catra,” Adora said forcefully, before softening her tone, “I'm saying what happened between us was because of shortcoming from both our sides... Maybe more mine, no... Definitely more mine but... When I explain it this way... Isn't it enough for you to just... Maybe not forgive me but... Give me a second chance?”

Catra was silent for another minute before replying.

“You want to break my heart again.”

_Again._

Catra _had_  cared about her the same way she felt about Catra... This was proof.

“Catra, I want another chance... At... Protecting something that... I might not have realized was as important to me as it is before all this.” Adora said softly.

Catra was silent for what felt like a small eternity. Thinking. Probably just figure out the best way to let Adora down ~~softly~~ roughly.

“You're dumb.”

“We covered that last night.”

Catra gave a slight snarl. “I think I prefer drunk you. She's easier to deter.”

Adora tried to fight the smile that crept it's way onto her face. “You could've deterred me ages ago, Catra.” Adora assured.

“I don't see how...” Catra mumbled.

Another (shorter) break of silence.

“So what, you expect me to join the rebellion just to _give you your second chance_?”

Adora could almost hear the air quotes in her voice.

_Yes._

“Well I... Umm... Erm...”

“You _really_  didn't think this out, did you?” The truth of the words stung, but Catra's  ~~friendly~~ mocking tone healed Adora's sting, and made her feel like she could touch the sky.

“You don't have to. Maybe we could... Figure something else out?”

“Right answer. Because if I join the rebellion and it _doesn't_  work out between us, then I just destroyed my bright Horde future for nothing. I know you don't much care for it, but I like my bright Horde future.”

Adora gave a hum of agreement.

“And likewise... I _suppose_ I couldn't get _you_ to return to the Horde...?”

It sounded more like a question than a statement.

“We also covered that last night, yes.”

Catra gave a quiet hum of thought.

“Well, Adora, I can only think of one answer then.”

“Y-yes?” Adora said, failing to hide the hopefulness in her voice.

“We'll have to meet on Neutral ground. I'll stay in the Horde, you stay in the rebellion, and whenever we want a date, we'll have to meet in the middle.”

Adora could barely believe her ears. She stopped fighting against the smile that took over her face. “I can work with that!”

Silence.

Catra spoke again, the disbelief evident in her voice, “... Wait, seriously? You understand that I'm not gonna stop working for Hordak, right? I'm still gonna kick your ass from time to time.”

“Yes, yes, Catra. I do.” Adora said, nodding. Tears threatened to escape her eyes.

“And this _in no way_ means I forgive you for leaving. And... I'll still probably kill you if I get the chance.”

Adora sniffled, but then spoke (in the most serious voice she could manage), “yes, I understand that.”

Catra breathed. “Huh. You... Okay, Adora. I guess we're doing this then.”

Adora suppressed a giggle. “I umm... I do have one question, though...?

“And if you hurt me I'll cut your heart out and feed it to Arrow.”

Adora nodded, “I'll even let you use my sword to cut me open.”

Catra gave an empty laugh, “umm, no thank you. I have claws. But let's hear your question.”

This time, Adora failed to suppress a slight giggle as she wiped her eyes.

“Does this mean I can call you my girlfriend?”

She could hear Catra let out an audible gasp.

“What, Adora I-, Dammit!” Another hiss as Catra fought to hide the flustered tone of her voice. She gave an annoyed sigh as she calmed herself. 

“We'll see how it goes after the first date.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my tumblr is the same name as my account here (I think???)  
> so  
> you can follow me there if you want periodic updates as to what I'm doing to procrastinate working on stories lmao  
> this is DEFINITELY the fastest update you're ever going to get from this story  
> and it will not follow a schedule  
> I'm terrible at keeping up with projects so  
> We'll see how long this lasts


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